JooYoung Seo
Ph.D.
614 E. Daniel St. | Room 5158, Champaign, IL 61820
Education
2021 University Park, PA Ph.D. in
Learning, Design, and Technology (The Pennsylvania State
University)
-
Dissertation Title:
`
Discovering Informal Learning Cultures of Blind Individuals Pursuing STEM Disciplines: A Computational Ethnography Using Public Listserv Archives.'' </li> <li> Committee members: Drs. Gabriela T. Richard (adviser; dissertation chair), Roy B. Clariana, ChanMin Kim, and Mary Beth Rosson. </li></ul></p><p>2016__University Park, PA__ M.Ed. in Learning, Design, and Technology (The Pennsylvania State University) </p><p>2014` Seoul, South Korea Double B.A. in Education, English Literature (Sungkyunkwan University)
Professional Appointment
Sep. 2021 - Present University of Illinois at
Urbana-Champaign Assistant Professor (School of
Information Sciences)
Apr. 2024 - Present University of Illinois at
Urbana-Champaign Faculty Affiliate (Department of
Computer Science)
Sep. 2021 - Present University of Illinois at
Urbana-Champaign Faculty Affiliate (Illinois Informatics
Institute)
Dec. 2021 - Present University of Illinois at
Urbana-Champaign Faculty Affiliate (National Center for
Supercomputing Applications)
Dec. 2023 - Present University of Illinois at
Urbana-Champaign Faculty Affiliate (Beckman Institute for
Advanced Science and Technology)
Aug. 2025 - Present University of Illinois at
Urbana-Champaign Faculty Affiliate (Center for Social and
Behavioral Science)
Jan. 2022 - Present University of Illinois at
Urbana-Champaign Faculty Affiliate (IDEA (Inclusion,
Diversity, Equity, and Access) Institute)
Jul. 2023 - Present Smith-Kettlewell Eye
Research Institute Affiliate Scientist (Rehabilitation
Engineering Research Center (RERC) on Blindness and Low Vision)
Feb. 2024 - Present University of
Washington AccessComputing partner (AccessComputing)
May. 2020 - Aug. 2020 Boston, MA
Software Engineer Intern (RStudio)
Grants
“Collaborative Research: An AudioTactile Data System for Blind or Low Vision Faculty, Staff, Postdocs, and Graduate Students in Chemistry, Math, Computer and Information Sciences,” PI (at UIUC), National Science Foundation (NSF Grant Award #2348166), Workplace Equity for Persons with Disabilities in STEM and STEM Education (nsf23593), $459,000 (for UIUC) out of $1,200,159 total, August 2024 - July 2028 (ongoing).
“Beyond Visuals: Improving Accessibility of Data Curation and Multi-Modal Representations for People of all Abilities through Reproducible Workflows,” PI, Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) Laura Bush 21st Century Librarian Program, Grant #RE-254891-OLS-23, $649,921, Aug 2023 - July 2026 (early terminated on April 28 and reinstated on May 21, 2025 affected by the President’s Executive Order 14238).
“Promoting Computational Thinking Skills for Blind and Visually Impaired Teens through Accessible Library Makerspaces,” PI, Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) National Leadership Grants, Grant #LG-252360-OLS-22, $498,638, Aug 2022 - May 2025 (early terminated on April 8th and reinstated on May 21, 2025 affected by the President’s Executive Order 14238).
“Inclusive Data Science: Fostering Accessibility and Reproducibility with Multimodal Learning Strategies,” PI, Teach Access Faculty Grants, Tier 3, $5,000, May 2023 - May 2024 (completed).
“Improving Accessible Reproducibility for Data Science Publishing System,” PI, Posit PBC (unrestricted gift), $54,327, May 2022 - Present (ongoing).
“Co-designing an Alexa-Based Conversational mHealth System with Visually Impaired People to Promote Physical Activities,” Co-PI, Center on Health, Aging, and Disability’s (CHAD) Pilot Grant Program at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, $29,866, 2023-2024 (ongoing).
“Category I: Crossing the Divide Between Today’s Practice and Tomorrow’s Science,” Senior Personnel, National Science Foundation (NSF), Grant #2005572, $10,000,000.00, Oct 2021 - Sept 30, 2026 (.5 FTE academic year) (ongoing).
“Insight without Sight: Enhancing Data Literacy through Multimodal Data Science Education - Smith-Kettlewell Summer Institute,” Subaward PI, Rehabilitation Engineering Research Centers (RERC) Program: RERC on Blindness and Low Vision, National Institute on Disability, Independent Living, and Rehabilitation Research (NIDILRR), Grant #90REGE0018-01-00, $11,975, July 17, 2023 - August 11, 2023 (completed).
“Data Accessibilization: Making Data Science Education Accessible for Blind Learners,” PI, Wallace Foundation, Emerging Scholars Program, International Society of the Learning Sciences, $10,000, Jan 2022 - Dec 2022 (completed).
Publications
- The following notations only apply to September 2021 and after.
#: derived from the candidate’s thesis.
*: publication that has undergone stringent
editorial review by peers.
+: publication that was invited and carries
special prestige and recognition.
Refereed Journal Papers
Papers in Refereed Conference Proceedings
Book Chapters
Publications in Healthcare
Conference Presentations and Invited Talks
Seo, J. (2024, March). Unseen Insights: Empowering Autonomous Data Science by, with, and for Blind People. Invited talk at the UC Irvine Donald Bren School of Information & Computer Sciences, Irvine, CA.
Seo, J. (2023, November). Insight Over Eyesight: My Journey as a Blind Data Scientist. Invited talk at the Chicago Lighthouse Career Fair, Chicago, IL (virtual).
Seo, J. (2023, November). Beyond Sight: Envisioning Data Science Through Multimodal Access. Invited as a keynote speaker at the 2023 UIUC iSchool’s Research Showcase, Champaign, IL.
Seo, J. (2023, November). Understanding Multi-Modality of Blind People Towards Inclusive STEM Learning. Invited talk at the UIUC CI590 DELTA Seminar, Champaign, IL.
Seo, J. (2023, July). Screen Reader User Experience Deep Dive. Invited talk at the Microsoft Visual Studio Code Team, virtual.
Seo, J. (2023, June). Perceiving Beyond Vision: My Journey Through Dreamscapes, Numerical Cognition, and a Blind Critique of Inclusive Data Visualization. Invited talk at the Dagstuhl Inclusive Data Visualization Workshop, Dagstuhl, Germany.
Seo, J. (2023, May). Enhancing Accessibility in Programming and Fostering Inclusive Data Science via Multimodal Strategies. Invited talk at the Campus Research Computing Consortium, virtual.
Invited panel (2023, May): Human Computer Relationships Work?: Embodiment, Inclusive Design, Accessibility, and Emerging Technologies for Learning, hosted by PhET Interactive Simulations at University of Colorado Boulder.
Invited demo by Microsoft (2023, April): VSCode Accessibility. VS Code Day 2023: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=X3qUfOB3x8Q
Invited panel (2022, December): Integrating Accessibility into a Computing Career, hosted by Associate Professor Stacy Branham at Informatics of the University of California, Irvine. (virtual).
Seo, J. (2022, November). Accessible Library Makerspaces. Invited talk at the UIUC iSchool IS571: Accessibility in Library Resources, Champaign, IL (virtual).
Seo, J. (2022, September). Digital Accessibility. Invited panel at the INFOcon 2022, virtual.
Seo, J. (2022, April). Accessible Data Visualization in a Reproducible Way. Invited talk at Champaign-Urbana Data Science User Group, Champaign, IL (virtual).
Seo, J. (2022, March). Understanding Multi-Modality of Blind People Towards Inclusive STEM Learning. Invited talk at the UIUC iSchool Proseminar, Champaign, IL (virtual).
Seo, J. (2022, March). Universal Design =
Usability * Accessibility (With Practical Examples
Beyond Conceptual Frameworks). Invited talk at INTE 535
Analysis, Implementation, and Evaluation of Assistive Technology.
Instructional Technology program of the University of Alabama,
Tuscaloosa, AL (virtual).
Seo, J. (2022, March). Your Condition is Not Your Conclusion. Invited talk at HTM4311: Hotel Professional Development at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University (virtual).
Seo, J. (2021, November). SCAFFOLDing All Abilities into Makerspaces. Invited talk at the UIUC iSchool IS582: Make, Design, & Learn in Libraries, Champaign, IL (virtual).
Seo, J. (2021, October). Non-Visual Strategies for Making Statistical-Computing Accessible. Lightening talk at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications, Champaign, IL.
Seo, J. (2021, September). Accessibility of Science Beyond Content Accessibility. Talk presented at the Argonne National Laboratory (Maths and Computer Science Division): https://www.anl.gov/event/accessibility-of-science-beyond-content-accessibility.
Invited panel (2021, August). DO-IT Neuroscience for Neurodiverse Learners Faculty panel at the University of Washington, virtual.
Seo, J. (2021, June). How to Learn to Code. Invited Talk presented at the Nature, Webcast: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-021-01638-z.
Seo, J., & Richard, G. T. (2021, February). Uncovering latent topics of blind people in computer science: structural topic modeling for an email corpus. Poster presented at the 2nd International Conference on Quantitative Ethnography (ICQE), Malibu, CA.
Donegan, S. R., Porter, C., Fogel, A., Seo, J., Choi, S., & Eagan, B. (2021, February). U.S. media coverage during COVID-19: an epistemic network analysis of bias, topic, and trajectory. Poster presented at the 2nd International Conference on Quantitative Ethnography (ICQE), Malibu, CA.
Seo, J. (2021, January). Accessible data science beyond visual models. Talk presented at the rstudio::global(2021), Virtual: https://global.rstudio.com/student/page/40617.
Seo, J. (2020, September). Discovering knowledge sharing patterns of blind people pursuing STEM disciplines: data science and computational linguistics on large-scale email corpora. Poster presented at the Doctoral Consortium of the annual meeting of the ACM Richard Tapia Celebration of Diversity in Computing, virtual. Awarded the Qualcomm scholarship.
Seo, J., & Richard, G. T. (2020, April). Maker inclusivity = maker accessibility: further interrogations for diverse participation. Poster presented at the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association (AERA), Virtual.
Seo, J., & Richard, G. T. (2018, April). Furthering inclusivity in making: a framework for accessible design of makerspaces for learners with disabilities. Poster presented at the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association (AERA), New York City, NY.
Bunag, T., Aniela, L., Nielsen, M. C., & Seo, J. (2017, November). The rapidly changing world of accessible online learning. Presented at the Panel Discussion: DDL - Accessible Online Learning In Concurrent Presentation of the Association for Educational Communications and Technology (AECT), Jacsonville, FL.
Seo, J. (2017, September). Tactile access to visualized statistical data using R. Poster presented at the annual meeting of the ACM Richard Tapia Celebration of Diversity in Computing, Atlanta, GA.
Liao, J., Patcyk, M., Seo, J., & Hooper, S. (2016, October). Using hierarchical linear modeling to measure growth rate in a gamified CBM environment. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Northeastern Educational Research Association (NERA), Trumbull, CT.
Seo, J. (2016, March). Engaging blind learners in statistics study using R. Presented at the annual meeting of the Teaching and Learning with Technology (TLT) Symposium, University Park, PA.
Kim, K., Seo, J., & Clariana, R. B. (2016, March). Automatic knowledge structure measure in online courses. Presented at the annual meeting of the Teaching and Learning with Technology (TLT) Symposium, University Park, PA.
Seo, J. (2015, November). Assistive technologies for equal access in general education. Presented at the annual meeting of the Association for Educational Communications and Technology (AECT), Indianapolis, IN.
Seo, J., & Park, E. (2015, October). The more accessible, the more potential: simple tips for online accessibility. Presented at the Technology and Learning Conference, Blue Bell, PA.
Media Coverage
Software Developments and Publications
Data Science Packages in Comprehensive R Archive Network (CRAN)
Open-Source Project on GitHub
Officially Code_Contributing R Packages
- My GitHub pull requests have been peer-reviewed and merged for active data science R packages:
2020 __https://cran.r-project.org/web/packages/shiny/__
shiny: Web Application Framework for R (Chang, W., Cheng, J.,
Allaire, J., Xie, Y., & McPherson, J.)
- Contributed to improving keyboard and TTS accessibility for input widgets.
2020 __https://cran.r-project.org/web/packages/vitae/__
vitae: Curriculum Vitae for R Markdown (O’Hara-Wild, M., &
Hyndman, R.)
- Contributed to enabling LaTeX engine customization.
- Contributed to displaying multiple bibliographies based on lua filter.
2019 __https://cran.r-project.org/web/packages/rmarkdown/__
rmarkdown: Dynamic Documents for R (Allaire, J., Xie, Y., et al.)
- Contributed to improving ioslides_presentation accessibility for screen reading software.
2019 __https://cran.r-project.org/web/packages/bookdown/__
bookdown: Authoring Books and Technical Documents with R Markdown
(Xie, Y.)
- Developed context_document2, github_document2, beamer_presentation2, html_fragment2, html_notebook2, html_vignette2, ioslides_presentation2, slidy_presentation2 and rtf_document2 functions to enable R markdown users to utilize cross-references for figures and tables through bookdown package.
2019 __https://cran.r-project.org/web/packages/distill/__
distill: ‘R Markdown’ Format for Scientific and Technical Writing
(Allaire, J., Iannone, R., & Xie, Y.)
- Contributed to displaying more metadata for journal article bib_entries.
- Improved screen reader accessibility for navigation bar.
- Added missing Google Scholar meta tags for conference, technical report, and dissertation types.
2019 __https://git.io/JkJca__ wordcountaddin: Word counts
and readability statistics in R markdown documents (Marwick, B.)
- Contributed to text_stats() function for R markdown users to Get a word count and some other stats for selected text (excluding code chunks and inline code).
2019 __https://cran.r-project.org/web/packages/BrailleR/__
BrailleR: Improved Access for Blind Users (Godfrey, A. J. R.,
Warren, D., Murrell, P., Bilton, T., & Sorge, V.)
- Contributed to BRLThis() function to enable blind R users to convert a graph into a pdf ready for embossing in Braille.
Teaching Experience
IS 407: Introduction to Data Science (spring 2022-present).
IS 569: Internship (spring 2022). Advised Ankita Khiratkar (MS IM).
IS 589: Independent Study (spring 2022). Advised Chetna Beri (MS IM).
INFO 399: Individual Study (spring 2022). Advised Leo Zhang (CS undergrad –> Currently, Master’s student at UCLA Data Science dept).
IS 389: Independent Study (spring 2022). Advised Miso Kim (BS IS).
IS 226: Introduction to Human-Computer Interaction (fall 2021). Co-teaching with Dr. Yang Wang.
Served as an annual review committee member for iSchool Ph.d. student Smirity Kaushik (advisor Dr. Yang Wang) (spring 2022).
Served as a field exam committee member for iSchool Ph.D. candidate Jaihyun Park (advisor Dr. Ryan Cordell) (spring 2022).
Awards and Honors
Sep. 2020 Virtual Qualcomm
Scholarship (ACM Richard Tapia Celebration of Diversity in
Computing Conference)
- Selected as one of the outstanding doctoral consortium proposals.
Feb. 2020 - Jul. 2020 Alexandria, VA
2020 NextGen Leaders (Disability:IN)
- Selected as one of the leaders in the U.S. for diversity.
Dec. 2019 Seattle, WA AccessSTEM
Resume contest winners Award (AccessComputing, University of
Washington)
- Sponsored by The National Science Foundation (NSF).
Oct. 2019 Madison, WI Best Doctoral
Proposal Fellowship (The First International Conference on
Quantitative Ethnography)
- Sponsored by Cengage.
2019 University Park, PA Andrew V.
Kozak Memorial Fellowship (The PDK Educational Foundation)
- Awarded $1,500 for research contribution to public education.
Apr. 2019 Toronto, ON, Canada AERA
Pre-Conference Travel Award (The Spencer Foundation)
2015, 2017 University Park, PA Delta
Gamma Golden Anchor Award (The Pennsylvania State University)
Sep. 2017 Atlanta, GA ACM Richard
Tapia Celebration of Diversity in Computing Conference Scholarship
(The National Science Foundation (NSF))
- Included free conference registration, shared hotel accommodations and a $500 travel stipend.
Sep. 2017 Atlanta, GA ACM Student
Research Competition Travel Award (Microsoft Research)
- $500 travel stipend was awarded for ACM TAPIA 2017 Student Research Competition (SRC).
Mar. 2017 Seattle, WA CSUN
Conference Travel Award (AccessComputing, University of
Washington)
- Sponsored by The National Science Foundation (NSF).
2017 University Park, PA Summer
Tuition Assistance Funding (College of Education)
Aug. 2016 - Present University Park,
PA Graduate Student Travel Grant (College of Education)
Aug. 2016 - Present University Park,
PA Graduate Assistantship (Teaching and Learning with
Technology)
2014 - 2019 Seoul, South Korea
Outstanding Academic Award (Hyomyoung Scholarship)
2016 Lake View Terrace, CA All
Nations Church Graduate Scholarship (ANC Scholarship Foundation)
Service
April 2022 - Present Champaign, IL
Search Committee for Director/Assistant Dean, Diversity, Equity,
Inclusion, and Accessibility (DEIA) (School of Information
Sciences at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign)
Sep. 2021 - Apr. 2022 Champaign, IL
Diversity Committee (School of Information Sciences at the
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign)
Dec. 2021 - Feb. 2022 Virtual
Program Committee Member (International Web for All Conference
(W4A) 2022)
Oct. 2021 - Jul. 2022 Durham
Accessibility Chair (15th International Conference on Educational
Data Mining)
Sep. 2021 TechTrends Journal
Reviewer (Special issue on ethnography and learning design)
2020 International Society of the Learning
Sciences Reviewer (The Network of Academic Programs in
the Learning Sciences (NAPLeS))
- Reviewed abstracts on equity and disability.
Aug. 2019 - May. 2020 University Park,
PA College of Education Technology Committee (The
Pennsylvania State University)
- Worked as a student committee member to support understanding of educational technology for College of Education.
Aug. 2019 - May. 2020 University Park,
PA Libraries’ Accessibility Student Advisory Group (The
Pennsylvania State University)
2019 Nashville, TN Reviewer (The
14th International Conference of the Learning Sciences (ICLS))
2019, 2020 Honolulu, HI, Yokohama,
Japan Reviewer (The ACM CHI Conference on Human Factors
in Computing Systems (CHI 2020, 2021))
2019 Madison, WI Reviewer (The 1st
International Conference on Quantitative Ethnography (ICQE))
2018 Nashville, TN Reviewer (The 3rd
Learning Sciences Graduate Student Conference (LSGSC))
2017 Bloomington, IN Reviewer (The
2nd Learning Sciences Graduate Student Conference (LSGSC))
2016 University Park, PA Funding
Reviewer (Center for Online Innovation in Learning (COIL), The
Pennsylvania State University)
Current Memberships
- International Society of the Learning Sciences (ISLS)
- Association for Computing Machinery (ACM)
- American Statistical Association (ASA)
- International Society for Quantitative Ethnography (ISQE)
- International Association of Accessibility Professionals (IAAP)
- International Educational Data Mining Society (IEDMS)